11 Year Old Declared Brain-Dead Due to Gas Bomb Injury

Medical officials declared 11 year old M.A. brain-dead on Thursday, after a gas bomb fired by the police during a demonstration landed on his head while he was on his way back home in the southern province of Adana.

M.A. was returning back from a convenient store, while police officers were firing gas bombs to disperse demonstrators protesting the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK,) in Adana's Anadolu Neighborhood on July 29.

M.A. was then taken to a hospital and placed under intensive care. He had been under treatment since then.

The Adana branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) also issued a statement highlighting the fact that M.A. was hit by a gas bomb despite the fact that he had not partaken in the demonstration himself.

Two other minors were also injured and had to stay under intensive care for a week after gas bombs struck their homes a month ago, the IHD also pointed out.

"The reasons why [law enforcement officials] fired at least 10 gas bombs on a street 150 meters long in the [heat] of a summer in Adana and why locals were [forced to] shut their doors and windows tight and stay indoors for hours in this [blazing] heat is crystal-clear," the IHD's statement said.

"As human rights defenders, we once more declare [our determination] to fight against the policies of repression, intimidation and destruction employed against those people who are struggling for democratic rights and against [Öcalan's] isolation until the end," the IHD concluded. (NV)